Things got a little heated at Mercury Payment Systems this weekend.

The new 80,000-square-foot Mercury Village building, unveiled May 30, was the subject of two small landscape-related fires Saturday and Sunday afternoons, according to fire district officials.

Randy Black, battalion chief with the Durango Fire Protection District, said twice onlookers mistook the building for being on fire when they saw smoke coming from the area, at 900 South Camino del Rio.

It was windy over the weekend and for some reason the excelsior, a material made from shredded aspen used for landscaping, caught fire, he said.

Marie Rotter, spokeswoman for Mercury, said Tuesday that the small fires were caused by a Mercury employee’s cigarette butts. The fires started next to a designated smoking area.

The fire district reported that Saturday’s incident was called in at 2:36 p.m. Sunday’s small blaze, reported just after 2 p.m., had been extinguished prior to firefighters arriving, Black said.

“Mercury is looking into switching out the mulch to rock,” Rotter said.

Also, she said, the company will be moving the smoking area.

There was no damage done to the building and no reported injuries, she said.

vguthrie@durangoherald.com